1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an agricultural hay rake device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Agricultural hay rakes, specifically carted or folding hay rakes are used to form windrows from cut crops, including hay, straw and grasses. It is a typical agricultural process to cut these crops, rake or merge them into windrows where additional drying may occur, collect and store the crops, and subsequently feed the crops to livestock.
Modern power equipment for raking cut forage employs rotating tined wheels and particularly banks of rotating tined wheels that are moved through a field of cut forage to form windrows. These banks of wheel rakes can be quite wide to reduce both the time and number of passes required to rake a field. Because of the wide widths employed by hay rakes, they typically have pivot points on each rake arm in order to fold to a narrower width for transport. Wide rakes thereby offer a potential time and cost savings to agriculture and enhance the raking process to best utilize favorable weather conditions, or to maximize the capacity utilization of the next piece of hay raking equipment.
The wide rakes require longer rake arms to support the banks of tined wheels used for efficient raking. These long rake arms can be heavy and cumbersome both in operation and in transport. While in operation, the rake arms are normally in a horizontal position and are preferably counterbalanced to a relatively neutral weight, to allow the tined wheels to “float” over the uneven ground without digging into the ground or skipping over the cut crop. Many of the known hay rakes use a vertically positioned expansion spring or shock absorbing material to help lift and cushion the weight of the rake arm while in operation.
One disadvantage of a vertical style spring or shock is that it is somewhat limited to its length, strength, and functionality. This is because the axle and wagon assembly at the spring mounting point is generally horizontal, and cannot adequately support a long vertical spring arrangement. The result is that vertical springs are typically short, requiring a stiff spring construction and a short effective range of motion.
Carted rakes normally have a pair of folding arms that are pivotally attached at one end to the wheeled cart. A pair of rake arms are pivotally attached to the other end of the folding arms, and include a plurality of tine rake wheels. The angle created by the pivot point between the folding arms and the rake arms is manually adjustable using a variety of adjustment methods. The angle of the rake arms is normally set to the optimum working position, and this same angle is maintained as the rake arm assemblies are pivoted up into a more vertical transport position.
In carted hay rakes where the angle between the rake arms and the folding arms is manually adjustable, one disadvantage is that the transport position of the rake assembly is not as compact, since the rake arms are angled upward while in transport. Another disadvantage is that the overall height of the hay rake in transport position is higher. Another disadvantage is that the rear end of the rake arms is lower, allowing the tine rake wheels to create more of a hazard to bystanders.